Is it just me... or does anyone else think Bear Grylls is STUPIDLY RECKLESS!

[cowboymrh]

I enjoy watching the occasional survival show on TV once in awhile. Survivorman with Les Stroud is great, but every time I watch Bear Grylls I can't help but think .....what a moron!!

I would pity the person who actually tried half the stupid stunts Bear Grylls does on his shows.

I just got through watching him in the Canadian Gold country. He falls out of his canoe into glacier fed water, swims to shore half way hypothermic then....cut to commercial!!  They don't come back and show how he deals with the situation!!

Then, he goes into an abandoned gold mine with a stick & burlap bag torch. First...Going into abandoned mines is reckless. Then, going into abandoned mines with only 1 source of light is idotic. Then he climbs down a mine shaft, and to top it all off, he tosses his torch (his only source of light) down the shaft to see how deep it is!!! Really????   At this point I'm laughing out loud at the stupidity!!

As I watch him do dumb thing, after dumb thing, after dumb thing,.... I finally get disgusted and turn off the TV.

Of course I know his shows are staged...... but half the stuff he passes off as survival, I would NEVER encourage anyone to do in a survival situation!!

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts!!

[Hotzn]

Bear Grylls is competing for a Darwin award if you ask me. I feel sorry for the animals he kills just for show. Someone should force him to eat all of them to the last bit. Don't kill what you don't need.

[SteveP]

Crossing ice covered water is inherently dangerous. There are times it is unavoidable when living a subsistence life and many people do die especially on a river where they get swept under the ice. I have seen several other survival shows where they do absolutely foolish things on ice while they don't even stop to think if there is a safer way to do it such as lying down to distribute weight; carrying a long pole to facilitate self rescue; laying a fire just in case and most importantly, using sticks and logs to distribute your body weight across the ice. Even improvised skis or snowshoes help!

A good precaution is to test the ice thickness before venturing out. This is done by Glenn Villeneuve and Chip Hailstone on the Life Below Zero series. Sue Aikens suffered a very severe injury when attempting to cross ice with water on it by snow mobile. The Hailstones discuss river ice safety at length because they have lost multiple family members to river ice. Erik Salitan has done some reckless snowmobile stunts on ice but was lucky not to be injured. Andy Basich also has had to deal with river ice and the use of dog teams.

Sue Aikens discusses polar bear safety precautions at length since she has survived multiple bear attacks. She uses coffee grounds and bleach to keep the bears out of camp and is absolutely paranoid about having a loaded firearm within easy reach at all times. Bear Grylls at least had the sense to rig up an warning system when he was in the Carpathian Mountains.

In defense of Bear Gryllis, his theme is extreme survival in very hostile environments. The ice water encounters are staged and I'm sure medical staff are on hand due to the extreme hazards of drowning due to water inhalation from shock and cardiac arrest when falling into ice water.

If you want to talk about stupid stunts, the Dual Survival series often has the team entering caves and hanging around extremely dangerous African mega fauna and predators. All of these shows may tend to induce naive people to undertake foolish expeditions and needless risks. The producers of Dual Survival are well known for asking the actors to do stupid things such as throw fire making supplies down near a water fall in Hawaii; it was one of the reasons Cody had conflict with the producers. Cody was typically right and was unable to reign in gung-ho Joe especially when he wanted to shelter in a terribly exposed spot on a mountain. Even Les Stroud has made extremely serious mistakes on his shows such as the Norway episode and at times when he survived overnight battling hypothermia without fire or adequate clothing and shelter. I know of an individual who actually froze to death while attempting to replicate a survival shelter in the Canadian winter without adequate preparation or a back-up plan such as a cell phone or advance scouting and prep.

Steven Rinella of Meateater got a case of trichinosis from eating under-cooked bear meat. He also did a crazy river crossing in New Zealand.

The Dangerous Side of Survival TV

Reckless behaviour makes for "entertaining" footage. It's only a matter of time before another person pays the ultimate price as Steve Irwin did. A ranger was attacked and killed by an elephant shortly after filming of a Dual Survival episode in Africa.

[Scyzara]

21 hours ago, cowboymrh said:

As I watch him do dumb thing, after dumb thing, after dumb thing,.... I finally get disgusted and turn off the TV.

I have the very same problem every time I try to turn on my TV in general.

Guess that's why I haven't watched TV at all for at least 3 years now. Except for a very small number of programs from Arte (= a "high quality" French/German broadcaster with a focus on documentaries about nature, culture, art and politics) that I always watch in their media library. 

[SEAplane]

17 minutes ago, Scyzara said:

I have the very same problem every time I try to turn on my TV in general.

Ha!  Some days it's just leaving the house!   

 

[romerabr]

Watching Les Stroud's Survivorman right now, I like him. Bear Grylls is impossible to watch, really hate him...

[exeexe]

Bear Grylls has the background of an elite soldier. Even if something should go wrong his body is conditioned to be able to take much more physical harm than your body. But of course everyone has limits. i just wants to point this out.

[cekivi]

I've seen that episode of "Man vs Wild"! No doubt, if you follow any of Bear Grylls advice you will be dead.

I believe Bear Grylls could survive in those situations (he's supposed to be former SAS) but there is no way he'd ever do anything that he shows on his program in real life.
 

[cowboymrh]

6 hours ago, exeexe said:

Bear Grylls has the background of an elite soldier. Even if something should go wrong his body is conditioned to be able to take much more physical harm than your body. But of course everyone has limits. i just wants to point this out.

Point well taken.....But my problem is,...... when he does reckless stuff like that, how many "impressionable people" are going to get into a world full of hurt thinking they are young and bulletproof themselves!!

He does have a disclaimer saying that he has support and medical staff nearby on the show, but I don't think that goes far enough.

At least with Les Stroud, his advice and examples are a bit more realistic and common sense.

[Jolan]

2 hours ago, cowboymrh said:

Point well taken.....But my problem is,...... when he does reckless stuff like that, how many "impressionable people" are going to get into a world full of hurt thinking they are young and bulletproof themselves!!

He does have a disclaimer saying that he has support and medical staff nearby on the show, but I don't think that goes far enough.

At least with Les Stroud, his advice and examples are a bit more realistic and common sense.

Also with Les, he's putting himself in harms way to teach people.  Bear is just in it for the theater.  One of Les's shows I watched was interesting because it dealt with the usual Les carrying 60 pounds of camera with a few cut aways to his team not being able to find him at the "end" because he was no where near where they thought he'd end up.

[Dirmagnos]

There is show and then there is survival.

When you have your own selection of tools/stuff and support team in either direct vicinity or 5 minutes away, then it has nothing to do with survival, its pure showing off. Main points of survival is isolation and lack of resources, none of those are present in most of "survival" shows. Having a sat phone with rescue team on standby is no isolation.

Most of shows ive seen makes me facepalm myself after 10-20 minutes. 90% of incidents are due to plain stupidity, like boiling water in a closed can and then opening it, while standing directly in front of it.

[Patrick Carlson]

I have to admit that I was a little surprised, years ago, that the reality TV craze went in the direction of someone like Bear Grylls. Fortunately he was followed by folks like Les Stroud who simply did it better. 

[Doc Gonzo]

Bear Grylls* is an entertainer, I just try to keep that in mind when watching. 

 

* Let's remember his real name is Edward Michael Grylls

[cowboymrh]

The sad part is, he could probably have a really good and informative show if he just dropped his ego down a few notches and took the time to "really think through" some of the stuff he does....... for example:

On that same Canadian Gold County episode, I enjoyed learning how he patched the canoe with tree sap and branches ...... that was cool. I also would have enjoyed watching how he dealt with that dip in the freezing cold river after he swam to shore. That would have also been very informative.

And even the torch made out of stick and burlap bag was interesting........ but then I was waiting for him to say...... "you should NEVER enter abandoned mines except for extreme cases when you need emergency shelter and even then, you should never enter them farther than you need, to be safely out of the elements". But he never did say that which I believe is "his duty" as a survival instructor.

Down here in the states, we find one or two every year down in Arizona that decide to enter a mine shaft without the proper gear or knowledge and who never come out!! Only to be found a few years later by someone else.

[elloco999]

I think Edward Micheal Grylls presents himself as pretty much an idiot when he's on TV. His shows are downright dangerous to people who don't know any better and try to do the things he does.

But lets be honest. His shows have very little to do with survival and a lot with entertainment. It's all about the ratings.

He's actually very knowledgeable and experienced about survival. I've been told he wanted to do a 'real' survival show but the producers made him do these stupid stunts. At first he didn't like that but he had a contract. But later he succumbed to the money and fame it brought him.

I have to admit that I do occasionally enjoy watching his shows. (There is generally alcohol involved ) But not as a source of survival information (even if he does give good advice every now and then) but in the right state of mind (mine, not his) he can be pretty entertaining. Always good for a laugh

Also, his shows can really help you if you ever get into a real survival situation. Just ask yourself: "what would Bear do?" and then do the exact opposite!

[cekivi]

11 hours ago, elloco999 said:

I have to admit that I do occasionally enjoy watching his shows. (There is generally alcohol involved ) But not as a source of survival information (even if he does give good advice every now and then) but in the right state of mind (mine, not his) he can be pretty entertaining. Always good for a laugh

Also, his shows can really help you if you ever get into a real survival situation. Just ask yourself: "what would Bear do?" and then do the exact opposite!

Too true!

[mattyboi]

Belated reply: I notice a few people made this point previously but didn't really complete the point. Bear comes from a military background. The survival mindset is completely different from Les Stroud, who comes from a primitive/native survival background. Les' method is to burn as few calories as possible and get to the point where he can survive as long as possible, or indefinitely.

In the military background, this simply isn't an option. The longer you try to "survive" behind enemy lines, the greater your chances of being discovered and captured (and as an elite soldier, likely interrogated/tortured and killed for publicity). The impetus is to survive, but also to exit the survival situation as quickly as possible to reduce the chance of capture. So Bear takes much bigger risks and burns a lot more calories because his survival method is geared towards different goals.

[ChillPlayer]

22 minutes ago, mattyboi said:

Belated reply: The survival mindset is completely different from Les Stroud, who comes from a primitive/native survival background. Les' method is to burn as few calories as possible and get to the point where he can survive as long as possible, or indefinitely.

I can't agree with that, Bear's first and foremost strategy is to put up a show and do as much crazy stuff as possible in hope it will get people talking. Les' strategy is simple: to survive.

[mattyboi]

Just now, ChillPlayer said:

I can't agree with that, Bear's first and foremost strategy is to put up a show and do as much crazy stuff as possible in hope it will get people talking. Les' strategy is simple: to survive.

I actually don't disagree with that; I think there is a lot of showmanship that goes into Bear's stuff. But the thing is, Bear is capable of performing the stunts in his show, and he's capable because he's been trained to do it.

[ChillPlayer]

2 minutes ago, mattyboi said:

Bear is capable of performing the stunts in his show, and he's capable because he's been trained to do it.

and that's exactly my point why I don't recognize this as a survival show. HE can do it but his audience can't. What Les is doing everyone can do, you don't need special skills only some practice in certain things, like firebow etc.

[mattyboi]

Just now, ChillPlayer said:

and that's exactly my point why I don't recognize this as a survival show. HE can do it but his audience can't. What Les is doing everyone can do, you don't need special skills only some practice in certain things, like firebow etc.

Agree.